A pair of jet bracelets have been discovered in a Roman child's coffin that has been prised open for the first time in 1,700 years, MailOnline can exclusively reveal.

The bracelets are thought to have belonged to a young Roman girl who was buried in the small lead coffin, which was recently unearthed in a field in Leicestershire.

A team of scientists had hoped to find a keepsake and the bones of the person who was laid to rest in the casket, but said the discovery of the bracelets is ‘very unusual’.

Two jet bracelets have been discovered in a Roman child's coffin that has been prised open for the first time in 1,700 years. They are thought to have belonged to a young Roman girl who was buried in the small lead coffin, which was recently unearthed in a field in Leicestershire

When the archaeologists first opened
the small lead coffin, they found a thick layer of clay, but
have now uncovered bone fragments and the two bracelets, having ‘fully
excavated’ the casket.

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Project spokesman Stuart Palmer said: ‘It is
reasonable to suppose [the remains] could be a female – such bracelets
were normally worn by women.’

He also said the size of the bracelets suggests they were worn by the young girl.

Chris Wright, who found the coffin (pictured in
black in the left-hand image) watches archaeologist Rob Jones (in white)
removing clay from the coffin. Experts at Archaeology Warwickshire
(right) are examining the 1700-year-old Roman child's coffin found in a
field and hope to discover keepsakes inside

Experts believe the child buried in the coffin was a little girl, based on the discovery of the tiny bracelets (one is pictured) but they will also analyse the bone samples found to be certain

The
child is as yet unnamed, but archaeologists want to show their respect
for her by giving her a Roman name and have picked a number of options
they want the public to vote for online.

The
names suggested are Oriens, which means 'rise like the sun', Loquor,
which in Latin translates as 'I speak', Aperio, meaning 'reveal', Addo,
meaning 'inspire', Accendo, which translates as 'illuminate' and
Parvulus, which means 'infant'.

Mr
Palmer said child burials from the time do not often survive in the
ground and that the lead coffin preserved the remains, which is unusual.

A 1,700-year-old lead coffin, thought to contain the remains of a Roman child, has been found by a metal detecting club in a field in Leicestershire

The clay inside the coffin will be analysed by scientists: Project spokesman Stuart Palmer said because the material has been sealed inside a lead coffin, it can be compared to a time capsule

The bracelets discovered in the coffin are extremely unusual and it is not known whether it was common for Roman girls to wear them, as so few burials of this kind have been found

‘Adding the jet bracelets makes it
very unusual,’ he said, explaining it is hard to know whether wealthy
Roman children typically wore bracelets of this type, as so few burials have been
found.

Speaking before the bracelets were discovered, Mr Palmer said the coffin can reveal so much about life at the times.

'Because
of the sealed environment within the sealed lead coffin there is
trapped evidence that would otherwise have been removed. It’s like a
time capsule,’ he said.

‘Chemical
testing can tell us a lot. We may even be able to establish a cause of
death if there is some chemical signature for it,’ he added.

The coffin was found by metal detecting enthusiast Chris Wright in a field in Leicestershire last month.

The casket was discovered in a field in Witherley, Leicestershire, but its location was kept secret until the coffin was removed, as experts feared that grave robbers might steal or damage the find

Archaeologist Rob Jones (pictured) removes the
top layer of clay from inside the coffin. A collection of fragments
unearthed from around the coffin, believed to be nails used in the outer wooden part of the coffin, are pictured right

Since
then, it has been cleaned by experts from the Archaeology Warwickshire
group and the University of York, who will now take several months to
analyse the contents.

Dating
processes confirmed the child was buried up to 1,900 years ago, while
the coffin’s lead lining suggests she was born into a wealthy
family

Mr Wright said he was stunned to stumble across the find.

'My initial surprise was followed by shock and awe. It’s different from the old coins we usually find.'

Archaeologists
have no plans to return to the site where the coffin was found as they
do not believe there are any other items of interest in the area.

After the analysis is complete, the coffin is likely to be re-buried unless it is found to be historically significant.

The coffin has been cleaned by experts from the Archaeology Warwickshire group and the University of York, who will now take several months to analyse the contents (pictured)

Members
of a metal detecting club stumbled across the coffin when they were searching a
field in west Leicestershire, about two miles away from where a Roman
settlement and fort that is known to have existed.

Mr Wright, 30, a surveyor, said: 'I cannot describe how it feels to find something like this. You spend hours walking around fields, sometimes with little reward and then you find something this.

'It is incredible, it makes all the hours worthwhile, it makes you feel so good.

'We had been at it all day and then got a signal - it was quite deep so I "ummed and ahhed" about whether to just ignore it and move on,'he said.

But luckily Mr Wright let curiosity get the better of him and began to dig.

'I was digging like mad when we began to see what it was - not in a way that might damage the item I must add - but just in an excited way,' he said.

'It would be great to have questions answered such as why a child should be given such a high status burial and why the burial took place there.

'But perhaps these are questions that may never be answered.'

The lead coffin is thought to hold the remains of the child of a very wealthy individual as it is estimated the casket would have cost the equivalent of about £200,000 in the third century AD

David Hutchings, 47, founder of DIGGING UP THE PAST metal detecting club said: 'It was about four feet underground on a field but the coffin was made of lead so we had no problem finding it.

After digging down and discovering it was a coffin, they called the police and a vigil was set up at the site to protect it from grave robbers.

Mr Hutchings said: 'We assumed there were human remains in there so we contacted the police and they got in touch with the archaeologists from Leicestershire County Council, who also came out.

'It seems to be third century Roman and because of the east-west alignment we think it was a Christian burial.

The coffin is thought to hold the remains of the child of a very wealthy individual.

'It’s a lead coffin and we think it would have cost the equivalent of about £200,000, so it was paid for by someone very wealthy,' said Mr Hutchings.

The coffin was found in a field in Leicestershire and it could be the earliest example of a Christian burial in the county. It was discovered by surveyor and amateur treasure hunter, Chris Wright (pictured)